Retired Court of Appeal judge Anthony Lucky has been assigned to probe what went wrong with the Uff Commission of Enquiry. Attorney General John Jeremie informed Parliament last Friday of the Government's decision to appoint Lucky to conduct an "urgent probe" on how the Government failed to comply with the legal requirement to publish in the Gazette, the conduct of the commission of enquiry.
Yesterday, the Sunday Guardian fielded responses from several people on whether they have confidence in the probe which will be done by Lucky.
"I have no comment on that."–Margaret Chow, former Managing Director of the Housing Development Corporation. "Why should I have confidence? In the final analysis, you're having a probe into a probe. It is disgusting. If you have a proper administrative structure and something is not done, you don't have to have a probe to find out what was not done. And by the way, the non-gazetting was not an accident, it was supposed to be done three times."–Winston Riley, President of the Joint Consultative Council.
"I don't want to comment on that."–Carl Khan, businessman.
"I don't have any comment to make. That is a non-issue. A probe into a probe is a non-issue."
Dr Keith Rowley, former PNM minister.
Hart: Keep Lucky's terms of reference simple
Keep retired Court of Appeal judge Anthony Lucky's terms of reference (TOR) in the Uff probe simple, says Victor Hart, Chairman of T & T Transparency Institute (TTTI). Hart made the appeal yesterday, saying this was to ensure "a speedy probe without the trappings of full legal representation of parties that made the Uff Enquiry so costly, lengthy and contentious."
The TTTI head said he welcomed AG John Jeremie's statement in Parliament that immediate steps would be taken to correct the problems affecting the legality of the Uff Commission of Enquiry that arose from failure to publish the enquiry's notice in the Gazette.
I hope he takes into account the fact that the error was made not once but three times. Firstly, he said, a notice should have been 'gazetted' in September 2008 when the enquiry was set up.
Secondly, in December 2008 when the TORs were amended to include investigation into the award by the HDC to NH International of the Cleaver Heights Project consequent upon a charge by the Prime Minister that $10 Million was unaccounted for. Thirdly, in May 2009 when the TORs were further amended to include investigation into workmanship on the Cleaver Heights Project consequent upon a charge of substandard work by the Minister of Works and Transport, he added.